This article is a tutorial that explains how to speed up Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 without compromising on features. Most users of this guide will immediately see up to a 500% boost in speed with the first optimization

DISCLAIMER

Proceed at your own risk! The information here is accurate to
the best of my knowledge. I will not be held responsible if this
document causes your computer to explode or burst into flames.
In real serious terms, if any corruption of data, hardware damage
or any other kind of damage/losses/etc. arises from the
use of this document, I will not be responsible for it. If you
don't like this, please don't read any further.

1. Disable Unneeded Add-ons

This is the Number 1 culprit in slowing down your browser. To get an idea of the speed boost you can get, go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Internet Explorer (No Add-ons).

How Much Speed Are We Talking?

You will now see Internet Explorer start without any add-ons or toolbars. The speed of how the browser starts now may have startled you.

Try out the browser now. Very much faster? Now you realize how those pesky add-ons have been slowing down your browsing experience. However, in this mode, you won't be able to watch YouTube videos as the Flash add-on is also disabled. We will fix this now.

Close the browser and start the browser as normal. In the browser, go to http://www.google.com. Next, we need to go to Manage Add-ons

3. Increase the Max Connections Per Server

Internet Explorer 7 and below are limited to two connections per server. This is why you can only download a maximum of two files from one website. Internet Explorer 8 raises this limit to 6.

Here is how to increase the number of HTTP simultaneous connections to 10. By having 10 connections, IE will be able to download 10 different files at one time. This will make web pages load faster.

If you are using Internet Explorer 7 and below

Go to Start > Run

Enter "regedit" and hit ENTER

On the left, navigate to the following HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings folder by:

Click HKEY_CURRENT_USER, then

Software, then

Microsoft, then

Windows, then

CurrentVersion, then

Internet Settings

Internet Settings should be selected on the left column

Go to Edit > New > DWORD Value

A box should appear. Put the name as "MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server", without double quotes. Press Enter.

Double click the entry you just created, select Base as "Decimal" and type 10 under Value data

Go to Edit > New > DWORD Value

A box should appear. Put the name as "MaxConnectionsPerServer", without double quotes. Press Enter.

Double click the entry you just created, select Base as "Decimal" and type 10 under Value data

Close Registry Editor

Restart your system

If you are using Internet Explorer 8

Go to Start > Run

Enter "regedit" and hit ENTER

On the left, navigate to the following HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MAIN\FeatureControl\FEATURE_MAXCONNECTIONSPERSERVER folder by:

Click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then

SOFTWARE, then

Microsoft, then

Internet Explorer, then

MAIN, then

FeatureControl, then

FEATURE_MAXCONNECTIONSPERSERVER

FEATURE_MAXCONNECTIONSPERSERVER should be selected on the left column

Go to Edit > New > DWORD Value

A box should appear. Put the name as "iexplore.exe", without double quotes. Press Enter.

Double click the entry you just created, select Base as "Decimal" and type 10 under Value data

On the left, click on FEATURE_MAXCONNECTIONSPER1_0SERVER, which is just near to the one already selected

Go to Edit > New > DWORD Value

A box should appear. Put the name as "iexplore.exe", without double quotes. Press Enter.

Double click the entry you just created, select Base as "Decimal" and type 10 under Value data

Close Registry Editor

Restart your system and the changes should take effect

4. Use a HOSTS file (Advanced)

Firefox has AdBlock Plus. Internet Explorer? HOSTS file.

Unfortunately, the Hosts file method is not as straight forward as Adblock Plus. For one, it blocks websites at a domain level. Next, removing an entry from the file requires you to go through some technical steps.

But once you get it working, you realize the speed benefits. Sites load faster. Here's how to install HostsMan, a free software that helps to manage the HOSTS file.

When your browser prompts you what to do with the ZIP file, click OPEN

There should be a single file named HostsMan_Setup.exe. Double click it to install the manager

First Setup screen of HostsMan

Click Next in the following dialog boxes to install HostsMan

After installation, the following interface appears:

HostsMan Main Interface

Click on the button in the middle to download the latest filter list

On the box that appears, click Update. If HostsMan asks whether to update the Hosts file, click Update.

Once you are done, you can close HostsMan. HostsMan does not need to be running.

If you ever need to remove a site from the filter list

Start HostsMan (Start > Programs > HostsMan > HostsMan)

Click the third button

Click Find in the top toolbar

Type the site name without the http://

The table at the top of the window will be highlighted with the matching row.

Check the box in the second column for that row

Click Save on the toolbar

Close the window and HostsMan

Restart the browser

See what I mean when I said removing an entry is not easy?

When a site is blocked, visiting it directly in Internet Explorer 8 will pass it as a search query to your default search engine (Bing.com by default) thus potentially slowing down the page loading. Here's how to handle localhost requests internally, speeding up browsing

Start HostsServer (Start > Programs > HostsMan > HostsServer)

Tools > HostsServer > Control Panel

Click on 'Start Server'. The Server Status should now be 'Running'

Click on Options

Check the box 'Start HostsServer automatically'

Uncheck the box 'Enable Log'

Click Apply

Close

Now when you visit a blocked site directly, the message "Blocked: (domain name)" will be shown instead. Page loading times will now have a significant improvement.

5. Increase the Half-Open Connection Limit (Advanced)

Windows XP SP2 and above limits the number of half-open connections to 10. This is not a big issue, and increasing the limit yields little benefits.

To increase the limit, there are two freely available patchers:

Lvllord Patch - ONLY for Windows XP Users (NOT Vista/Windows 7 users, see next step for Vista users) UPDATE: There has been a recent Automatic Update (MS08-001) released on January 8 2008 that addresses some network security concerns. The below has NOT been tested with the latest TCPIP.SYS (v5.0.2195.7147) file. Update:The patch has been tested with KB941644 (an automatic update) and works perfectly!

Open the file and run the program located inside the archive, agreeing to the security warning.

Some text should scroll by in a MS-DOS window, after it ends, type C.

Enter 100 for the number of concurrent half-open connections and press Enter.

Type Y and the file should be patched. Cancel any Windows XP warnings that should appear, it is part of Microsoft's way of ensuring its files are not tampered with (the utility tampers with them on purpose to change the limit).

To reset the max half open connections, run the lvllord utility again (for XP) and type 'U' to uninstall.

Open the folder where you saved the file and run the file you downloaded

Under 'New value', set it to 100 (if it is not already set)

Set the new value to 100

Click 'Add to tcpip.sys'

Click OK.

Click OK again. Cancel any Windows warnings that may appear, it is part of Microsoft's way of ensuring its files are not tampered with (the utility tampers with them on purpose to change the limit).

Restart your computer.

If something is not working right (e.g. Internet access does not work anymore) and you want to undo the changes, run the software again and click "Restore original file".

NOTE: The patchers above are known to trigger anti-virus alerts. Ignore them. The alerts are triggered due to the patcher making changes to the way Windows works hence making the anti-virus software suspicious.

6. Disable JavaScript and ActiveX (Advanced)

This tip can improve web page loading speed by up to 300% or even more. However, some sites may not work properly or even refuse to load. For example, Twitter will refuse to load with JavaScript disabled. Youtube videos will not work as well with Javascript disabled.

Run and install the software (remember to uncheck CCleaner Yahoo! Toolbar if you don't need it - it is NOT required and is checked by default)

Run CCleaner

CCleaner main interface

By default, CCleaner erases Internet Explorer History and Cookies as well. If you don't want to delete these, uncheck the relevant boxes in the left column under Internet Explorer.

Click Run Cleaner

Click OK. Don't worry, only temporary files are deleted.

CCleaner will now run and delete all the left over temporary files. You may see stuff like Recent documents shortcuts and IE URL drop down empty. This is normal.

Now lets run Disk Defragmenter

Go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools

Click Disk Defragmenter

Click Defragment

This will take some time depending on how badly fragmented the drive is. For best results, close all programs before clicking the Defragment button.

9. Remove list of Restricted Sites

Some security software (such as Spybot - source) insert large lists of site addresses in Internet Explorer's Restricted Sites feature. This can slow down IE as it will need to verify the access permissions for every site it pulls data from.

WARNING: Following the tip below will clear all malicious site addresses inserted by your security software. With such entries, IE will restrict on what such sites can do IF you visit them. Without these entries, IE will treat these sites as normal sites. This does not mean that your computer is now more open to security vulnerabilities. As long as you keep Windows and Internet Explorer updated, you reduce the chances of getting compromised..

Personally, we would remove such lists as they can slow down the Internet Explorer browsing experience.

Optimize TCP settings for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7

Double-click on the TCPOptimizer application in the folder to launch it

At the bottom of the window, click "Optimal"

At the top of the window, drag the slider to select your connection speed. If you are not sure, run the speed test. Use the value that you get for the Download field (which is in kb/s) and set the slider to it.

If you are using ADSL, check with your Internet Service Provider whether it is based on PPPoE or PPPoA. You may also be able to obtain the information via your router's homepage. If your connection is based on PPPoE, tick the PPPoE box.

Under the "Network Adapter selection" box, select the network adapter you use to connect to the Internet. If you are unsure, go to Start > Control Panel > Network Connections. Your connection should be listed there. Most of the time, it is Local Area Connection. Select the entry and the status bar at the bottom should display the network adapter name.

Click 'Apply Changes' at the bottom of the window.

Ensure that 'Backup' is checked and click OK at the next confirmation box that appears.

Once the changes are done, reboot your system

This would have optimized your settings according to your internet connection you have. If you need to undo the changes TCP Optimizer made, open TCP Optimizer > File > Restore Backup Settings.

I just installed WIN 7 Pro on a new hard drive. I went through all your suggestions and it didn't help with my problem. However, if I run "iexplorer -exoff" it runs like a champ. I'm guessing it has to be one of the IE 8 Add-ons. This is very frustrating. I bring up any web site or click on a link to one, and 15-20 seconds before it comes up and sometimes longer. Its not my ISP connetion as it's 12MBs and last time I ran it it was over 25MBs download speed. I've been installing software and I'm thinking this Adobe Creative Suite 5 Web Premium might be part of my problem. Thanks for such a detailed list of suggestions. I appreciate all the effort you have put into this article.

I knew of the steps in section 3, but as for the rest.....I had no idea.
No more frustration and ditching of IE; mine is now really fast, with pages opening within 1-3 seconds max! (I didn't even have to attempt steps 4-6 for this outcome either)